August Comments

ANON
Aug 31st, 2015 @ 11:10 AM

A long-running
public inquiry will examine allegations of historic child abuse at
juvenile justice institutions when it resumes this
week.

Retired judge
Sir Anthony Hart is leading the Historical Institutional Abuse
(HIA) probe, one of the UK's largest inquiries into physical,
sexual and emotional harm to children at homes run by the church,
state and voluntary organisations.

Its seventh
module, expected to last until November, will focus on allegations
arising out of St Patrick's Training School and Hydebank Young
Offenders' Centre in Belfast, Rathgael Training School in Bangor
and Lisnevin Training School in Newtownards.

In June, the
HIA, spent a week examining the failings that allowed notorious
paedophile priest Fr Brendan Smyth to continue abusing children
over four decades.

Retired
Catholic Primate Cardinal Sean Brady was among those who gave
evidence and said he hoped light would be shed on a "dark chapter"
in the church's history.

The inquiry was
set up in January 2013 by the Northern Ireland Executive to
investigate child abuse which occurred in residential institutions
over a 73-year period from 1922 to 1995.

A total of 16
child care facilities are under investigation and around 300
witnesses are expected to give evidence.

Investigative
work is scheduled to finish next summer with a report submitted to
the MLAs at Stormont the following year.

The HIA is
sitting at Banbridge Courthouse, County Down.

On the panel
alongside Sir Anthony Hart, a retired High Court judge, is
Geraldine Doherty, a former head of the Central Council for
Education and Training in Social Work in Scotland and David Lane,
formerly director of social services in Wakefield, West
Yorkshire

ANON
Aug 28th, 2015 @ 11:49 AM

Vatican's
former ambassador, charged with sexual abuse, has
died…

The Vatican's
former ambassador to the Dominican Republic, who had been charged
with sexually abusing children in the Caribbean country, has died
as he awaited trial.

Jozef
Wesolowski, 67, was found dead in the Vatican room where he has
been held on house arrest, according to a statement from the
Vatican.

Initial checks
"indicated that the death was from natural causes", a press
statement said.

It said the
Vatican prosecutor ordered an immediate post-mortem and that Pope
Francis was informed.

Wesolowski had
been due to go on trial in a Vatican tribunal on July 11 for
allegedly causing grave psychological harm to victims and
possessing child pornography.

But on the
morning of the hearing, he was admitted to intensive care because
of an unidentified "sudden illness". No new trial date was made
public and the presiding judge had adjourned the trial
indefinitely.

Wesolowski was
previously defrocked under the Vatican's canon law procedures but
was facing possible jail time if convicted in its civil
tribunal.

The trial had
been seen as a high-profile way for Pope Francis to deliver on
pledges to punish high-ranking churchmen involved in sex abuse of
minors, either by molesting children or by systematically covering
up for priests who did.

Recent changes
to the Vatican legal code under Francis' leadership allowed
prosecutors to broaden their case against Wesolowski.

Charges
included possession of what prosecutors described as enormous
quantities of child pornography on his two computers, including
after Wesolowski was recalled to the Vatican in 2013 following the
emergence of rumors that he sexually abused shoeshine boys near the
waterfront in Santo Domingo, the capital of the Dominican
Republic.

Wesolowski was
the first such high-ranking Vatican prelate to be criminally
charged at the Holy See for sexually abusing minors.

The case was
particularly delicate because Wesolowski was a direct
representative of the pope and had been ordained as a priest and
bishop by his fellow Pole, the late pope John Paul II.

Polish
Corresspondent Aug 28th, 2015 @ 08:50 AM

Jozef
Wesolowski, a former archbishop and Vatican envoy to the Dominican
Republic, has died before he could be tried for child sex
offences.

His trial in
the Vatican was adjourned in July after he was taken
ill.

He was accused
of paying for sex with children in the Dominican
Republic.

Wesolowski, 66,
would have been the first high-ranking church official to be tried
on paedophile charges. His case was seen a test of the Vatican's
pledge to stamp out child abuse.

Last year, the
Pope compared the actions of those who commit such crimes to a
"satanic mass".

Wesolowski was
charged with abusing children in the Dominican Republican between
2008-13.

He was also
charged with possession of child pornography, dating from his
return to Rome in 2013.

The charges
have been seen as part of a crackdown by Pope Francis on clerics
and employees of the Church who exploit minors.

Latin
American Aug 22nd, 2015 @ 04:55 PM

The Chilean
government has decided to deport an Irish priest who was convicted
last year of sexually abusing a young girl, according to the
Chilean interior ministry.

John O'Reilly
was sentenced to four years' probation in November for repeatedly
molesting the girl from the time she was five.

The abuse took
place from 2010 to 2012 at an exclusive school where O'Reilly was
the spiritual advisor at the time.

The interior
ministry said it was revoking O'Reilly's permanent residency and
that he would have to leave the country after completing his
sentence in 2018.

The decision
can be appealed to the Supreme Court.

O'Reilly, 69,
was once an influential figure in Chile as the local head of the
Catholic Church's ultra-conservative Legion of Christ
order.

He arrived in
Chile in 1984 and was granted citizenship in 2008 - but had it
revoked in March by Congress.

The Legion of
Christ has been beset by accusations of sexual abuse.

The order's
founder, Mexican-born Marcial Maciel, stepped down in 2005 amid
allegations of pedophilia and fathering several children. He died
in 2008 under the protection of the Vatican

ANON
Aug 21st, 2015 @ 04:47 PM

Three jailed
over Rochdale child sexual exploitation…

A man who
abducted and sexually exploited a 13-year-old girl from a Greater
Manchester care home has been jailed for seven years.

Bilal Ahmed, of
Tentercroft, Oldham, abused the vulnerable teenager when she was
away from the care home.

University
graduate Ahmed, 27, sexually abused the girl on two occasions
during a week last September.

Two other men
were also jailed at Manchester Minshull Street Crown Court for
abduction and facilitating abuse.

The victim told
Greater Manchester Police about a "disgusting" experience she had
endured with Ahmed.

The jury
convicted him of two counts of child abduction and two of engaging
in sexual activity with a child.

His friend
Hassan Ali, 21, of no fixed address, was jailed for 12 months at an
earlier hearing after he was convicted of abducting a 13-year-old
boy.

He was jailed
for two years after he was found guilty of facilitating sexual
activity with a child.

A fourth man,
Jubair Rahman, 23, of Waterman View, Rochdale, admitted child
abduction at an earlier hearing and will be sentenced on Monday,
police said.

The children,
girls aged 13 and 15, and a 13-year-old boy, had been living at
care homes in After sentencing, Det Con Ben Harris said: "All four
men befriended the children, who were extremely vulnerable and
given drink and drugs.

"The offenders
gained their trust before taking advantage of them to satisfy their
own needs."

Neil Usher,
prosecuting, told a previous court hearing that the children in the
care of Rochdale Social Services the 13-year-olds and a 15-year-old
girl went missing from separate care homes in September and October
2014.

The girls would
meet each other and seek the company of older men, the court heard,
staying out overnight occasionally and being given alcohol and
cannabis.

On 21
September, the three teenagers caught a tram to Oldham where they
arranged to meet Ali.

They were taken
to a house party where the 13-year-old girl was sexually abused by
Ahmed. She was abused again within a week.

ANON
Aug 21st, 2015 @ 10:39 AM

Number of
children in care hits a 20-year high…

The number of
looked-after children in Northern Ireland has reached a 20-year
high, with some in the care system for more than a decade,
according to the Human Rights Commission.

In March last
year, 249 children had been looked after for more than 10 years,
and 547 children had been looked after for between five and 10
years.

Youngsters are
also being moved too quickly between foster places because of
financial pressures and there are delays in adoption, the body
added.

Of the
looked-after children who moved in the year 2012/13, more than a
fifth had between one to three placement switches.

The body
pointed out that despite recognising adoption legislation was out
of date in 2006, authorities have not reformed it.

Interviewed
young people also expressed a lack of decision-making in their
care, coupled with a lack of consistency in residential care
settings.

Chief
Commissioner Les Allamby said: "Our aim is for improvements to be
made without delay as it is essential our laws protect children's
human rights at every step in the care system."

ANON
Aug 21st, 2015 @ 09:40 AM

Inquiry call
over alleged historical sex abuse at school in Wales Junior School
said nobody connected with the school at that time
remains....

People who
claim they were sexually abused by a Newport head teacher in the
1970s are calling for an inquiry to investigate if reports were
made to the authorities at the time.

Seven people
have contacted solicitors alleging they were assaulted by Jon
Styler at Malpas Church in Wales Primary School.

Mr Styler, who
killed himself in 2007, reportedly denied the
allegations.

Gwent Police
said it was not currently investigating Mr Styler.

Jeff Parry from
Newport, who was a pupil at the school in the 1970s, claims he was
abused during private reading lessons in Mr Styler's office, when
he was 10-years-old.

He said he felt
no-one would have believed him at the time, but now wants an
investigation to find out what the authorities might have
known.

"I would like
there to be an inquiry now into what happened because I don't want
it to happen to any other child," he said.

Another alleged
victim, who did not want to be named, claims he was abused at
school, at a holiday caravan and after trips to the
theatre.

Other media
reports suggest Jon Styler had been arrested and released on bail
over historical allegations.

The same
reports also claimed he strongly denied the allegations in a letter
written before his death.

A signed
statement from a senior teacher who worked at the school at the
time, seen by BBC Wales, alleges he told a number of organisations
about his concerns "young vulnerable children were at considerable
risk".

They include
the Church in Wales, a teaching union and the then Gwent County
Council.

The teacher
claims Mr Styler was spoken to but no pupils were
questioned.

Mr Styler also
worked at Brynglas Primary School, Newport, from 1968, before later
moving to Malpas Church in Wales Primary School.

No allegations
have been made against him at any other institution.

Newport council
said it took the allegations seriously but it could not comment
further as the matter was subject to a legal claim.

Malpas Church
in Wales Junior School said any allegations "should be fully
investigated" but said "nobody connected with the school at that
time remains".

The Church in
Wales said it had "no record on file of claims against Mr Styler",
while Gwent Police said there was currently no investigation into
Mr Styler

ANON
Aug 20th, 2015 @ 10:03 AM

Child sex
suspect is arrested at Manchester Airport…

A man wanted in
connection with child sexual exploitation in Rotherham has been
arrested at Manchester Airport.

South Yorkshire
Police said Basharat Hussain (3 was detained at the airport by
their officers in connection with "a string of non-recent sexual
exploitation offences" in the town.

Hussain, of no
fixed address, was arrested after a warrant for his arrest was
granted by Sheffield Magistrates Court, the force
said.

A spokesman
said he has been charged with gross indecency towards a child,
inciting a child to commit gross indecency, procuring a female to
have sex with a man, indecent assault, rape, false imprisonment and
procuring a female to become a prostitute.

The offences
are alleged to have occurred between 1996 and 2001.

The arrest was
made as part of Operation Clover, a South Yorkshire Police
investigation.

Hussain was
bailed after he was arrested earlier this year and was thought to
have fled to Pakistan.

ANON
Aug 20th, 2015 @ 10:02 AM

Maggie
Kirkpatrick: Australian actor found guilty of child
abuse…

Australian
actor Maggie Kirkpatrick has been found guilty by a court in
Melbourne of sexually abusing a girl under 14 in 1984.

Kirkpatrick,
aged 74 and one of the stars of 1980s Australian TV drama Prisoner
Cell Block H, had denied charges of gross indecency.

But the court
ruled she had abused the girl at her home in Prahan,
Victoria.

Kirkpatrick was
ordered to return to court on Friday, when she will be sentenced to
community service.

In a statement
read to the court, the unnamed victim said she had organised a
meeting with Kirkpatrick through a TV producer while she was a
patient in a psychiatric hospital.

She said said
she had not reported the abuse until recently because she feared
people would call her "crazy".

Kirkpatrick
played a warden called Joan, nicknamed The Freak, in Prisoner, a
popular series set in a women's prison.

She later
appeared in a host of other Australian TV shows and in 1991 played
Marilyn's aunt Jean Chambers in Home and Away.

Her most recent
role was in a stage production of the musical Wicked.

ANON
Aug 18th, 2015 @ 10:39 AM

A mother who
branded her 16-month-old baby's cheek with a "smiley"
mark…

Judge Philip
Head said the woman's actions were "wicked" as he sentenced the
25-year-old to four years in prison.

The mother
denied three counts of child cruelty, which included pressing the
hot end of a cigarette lighter into her baby's cheek to brand her
in May 2012.

She appeared
emotionless in the dock at Leicester Crown Court as the judge
sentenced her.

Judge Head
said: "You gravely abused your child."

Speaking about
the burn, the judge said: "There's only one word for that:
branding.You branded
your own daughter's face in an area that will be visible for the
rest of her life.

"You branded
your child in a deliberate and premeditated act. It was
wicked."

The incidents
all took place at a flat in North West Leicestershire.

Mitigating,
Justin McClintock said his client, who cannot be named, was "naive
and immature".

He added that
she had lost custody of her children.

ANON
Aug 18th, 2015 @ 10:06 AM

Lest We
Forget.

Bishop wants
Little Nellie exhumed…

The Bishop of
Cork and Ross has called for the exhumation of the remains of
Little Nellie the “unofficial patron saint” of Cork from a cemetery
on lands controlled by receivers to allow people to pray at her
grave.

John Buckley
also suggested that in the interim, approaches be made to the bank
which appointed the receivers to manage the now derelict Good
Shepherd Convent on Sunday’s Well with a view to facilitating
public access to her grave.

“As devotion
grows to Little Nellie, we should ensure that maybe her remains are
exhumed again, and placed in a more public place, where people
could come and pray to her.”

He makes his
comments in a new three-part radio documentary, produced and
presented by John Greene, as part of his Where the Road Takes Me
series on C103.

Ellen Organ was
born in Waterford in 1903 and moved to Cork in 1905 when her
father, a member of the Royal Artillery, was transferred to Spike
Island.

When her mother
died, Nellie and her sister were placed into the care of the Good
Shepherd Sisters at their industrial school in Sunday’s
Well.

Despite her
young age and debilitating health conditions, including TB, Nellie
astounded people with her strong faith, knowledge of Catholic
doctrine, and holiness.

The then bishop
of Cork, Bishop O’Callaghan, was so impressed with her use of
reason and devotion to the Eucharist that he granted her special
permission to receive Holy Communion aged just four-and-a
half.

She died in the
convent in 1908 and was buried in St Joseph’s Cemetery but when her
body was exhumed for reburial in the convent grounds a year later,
it was found to be intact.

As word of her
remarkable life spread, people began praying to her and claimed her
intercession led to the granting of favours and cures.

Her life story
influenced Pope Pius X in his decision to lower the age for
receiving Communion from 12 to seven.

Over the years,
her grave became a place of pilgrimage.

The convent
chapel was dedicated to her memory and her room was preserved for
almost a century until the derelict convent was razed by fire in
July 2003.

Planning
permission was granted in 2006 for the complete redevelopment of
the convent and former Magdalene laundry as a massive student
complex, but the work never started.

ANON
Aug 18th, 2015 @ 09:08 AM

Roman
Catholic Church in Scotland to publish abuse report…

The findings of
a special commission set up to look into abuse within the Roman
Catholic Church in Scotland are due to be published.

The church
asked Dr Andrew McLellan to lead a review of how it handles
allegations of abuse.

It took
evidence from victims in a bid to improve support services and
protect vulnerable children and adults.

Archbishop
Philip Tartaglia will respond to the recommendations during a Mass
in Glasgow.

Dr McLellan, a
former moderator of the Church of Scotland, was tasked with coming
up with proposals aimed at making the Catholic Church in Scotland
"a safe place for all".

In March of
last year, he named 11 commissioners, including a senior police
officer, a journalist and an MP, who would work alongside
him.

Dr McLellan
stressed the commission would not "investigate or adjudicate" on
current or historical allegations.

Allegations of
abuse have been made by former pupils at Fort Augustus
Abbey.

His review was
announced following a series of scandals.

The Church
faced allegations of abuse at the former Catholic boarding school
at Fort Augustus Abbey in the Highlands.

The former
leader of the Catholic Church in Scotland, Cardinal Keith O'Brien,
stepped down in February 2013 after admitting sexual
misconduct.

Dr McLellan's
review is part of a three-sectioned response by the church to
allegations of sexual abuse.

The church said
it would make public annual audits of all allegations received by
the church and has, so far, published two.

It also said it
would instigate a retrospective investigation of historic
allegations, dating back to 1947 with work continuing on
that.

The church said
any allegations uncovered as part of this, which had not been acted
upon, would be passed to police for them to investigate

ANON
Aug 14th, 2015 @ 10:37 AM

Lord Janner
not at court to face child sex abuse charges…

Lord Janner has
failed to appear at court to face child sex abuse charges, despite
the High Court ruling he must attend a hearing.

His lawyer told
the court he would try to "facilitate" an appearance by the peer
today, adding he wanted him to appear via a live link from his
home.

The
87-year-old, who has dementia, had been due at Westminster
Magistrates' Court in relation to 22 charges spanning the 1960s to
the 1980s.

His family say
he is innocent.

Lord Janner's
lawyer, Paul Ozin, said a live link from the peer's home would be
the option that was "least likely" to cause the peer to
suffer.

He had argued
Lord Janner had "virtually no language left at all" and was likely
to have a "catastrophic reaction" if he attended
court.

But his lawyers
said they were not planning to appeal the ruling.

The judges said
the public interest outweighed any personal distress he might
experience, and any distress would be "of short
duration".

His appearance
had been expected to last less than a minute and he was to be
allowed to be accompanied by a member of his family and a
nurse.

Lord Janner's
family have strongly denied claims he used his power as an MP to
abuse young boys over three decades.

Earlier this
year, Director of Public Prosecutions Alison Saunders decided not
to bring charges against Lord Janner because of his ill health but
this decision was overturned after an appeal by the alleged
victims.

If a crown
court judge decides the former Labour MP for Leicester is fit to
plead, a full trial may take place.

If not, there
will be a trial of the facts, where a jury will decide only if he
committed the physical acts of abuse, with no finding of guilt and
no conviction.

Greville Janner
was made Lord Janner of Braunstone in 1997. He remains a life peer,
but has been on leave of absence since 2014.

Police said
specialist officers and staff from the force and county council
will handle parents' specific concerns and information relevant to
the inquiry.

People can ask
to speak to children's services at the county council on 0300 123
4043.

ANON
Aug 12th, 2015 @ 11:43 AM

Rotherham
"horrific" child sex abuse brothers jailed…

Two brothers
who subjected three children to "horrific and depraved" sex abuse
in Rotherham have been jailed.

Eduard Peticky,
48, and his younger brother, Ludovit, abused two boys and a girl as
young as three years old in the Eastwood area between 2010 and
2012.

They were found
guilty of 10 charges between them, including sexual assault, after
a trial on 25 July last year.

Sentencing them
at Sheffield Crown Court, Judge Peter Kelson said it was "a hugely
horrifying incident".

Eduard Peticky,
of Josephine Road, Rotherham, was sentenced to life in prison and
ordered to serve a minimum term of 10 years for four offences
including sexual exploitation and trafficking.

His 45-year-old
brother, Ludovit Peticky, of Legrams Lane, Bradford, was jailed for
12 years for six offences.

Both had denied
all the charges.

Speaking of
Eduard's offending, the judge said: "This is a hugely horrifying
incident and as depraved as could possibly be. It is horrific. He
poses a substantial risk to society."

A police
investigation began in September 2013 after the victims disclosed
what had happened to them.

Det Con Ian
Hampshire, of South Yorkshire Police, said he hoped they could "now
try to move on with their lives and put this dreadful ordeal behind
them".

"These young
children suffered horrific abuse at the hands of these brothers
over a prolonged period of time.

"The harm that
they caused will stay with them forever.

"I am pleased
the young victims found the courage to tell someone what had
happened to them so that we could take swift action against the men
and bring them to justice."

ANON
Aug 12th, 2015 @ 11:39 AM

Convicted
child abuser Alan Kerr jailed for attacks on boys…

A convicted
child abuser has been jailed for eight years over sexual offences
against four young boys.

Alan Kerr, 58,
from Glasgow, admitted abusing two boys but denied more serious
charges, meaning his other victims were forced to give
evidence.

At the High
Court in Glasgow, he was convicted of offences against the four
boys at various addresses in Glasgow and Stirling between 1980 and
2006.

Kerr previously
served five years and 10 months for abusing a boy and a
girl.

The court heard
that Kerr's latest known abuse came to light after one of his
victims began experiencing flashbacks.

When he
contacted police an investigation was launched and the other
victims came forward.

ANON
Aug 11th, 2015 @ 11:20 AM

1/2...Internet giants to
help remove abuse images…

Internet giants
such as Facebook, Google, and Twitter are being given access to a
database which will enable them to help uncover and remove millions
of online images of child abuse.

The
British-based anti-abuse organisation Internet Watch Foundation
(IWF) is sharing lists of images of abuse with web companies so
that they can protect their customers and help
victims.

In order to
help the system be effective as possible, the British government is
giving IWF access to its own Child Abuse Image Database
(CAID).

According to
the BBC, CAID even includes images found on computers seized by
police that may not have been uploaded online.

The IWF
database will be made available to internet companies that provide
services such as uploading, storing, or searching of images;
filtering or hosting services; and social media and chat services,
as well as those working in connectivity and data
centres.

All the
pictures will be given a ‘hash’ or digital footprint which will
make it harder to share.

The hashing
system is already used by the In Hope international network of
internet hotlines, which monitor illegal activity
online.

Paul Durrant of
the Internet Service Providers’ Association of Ireland (ISPAI),
whose hotline.ie website is an InHope member, said the hashing
system technically analyses the image and creates an unique
code.

ANON
Aug 11th, 2015 @ 11:19 AM

2/2....“That
code is not reversible and can be distributed to various people,”
he said.“While you
cannot create the image from the code, if another image comes along
which matches the code, you can be fairly sure it is probably the
same image and it is probably an illegal one.”

Mr Durrant said
it was a major step forward for companies offering widespread
hosting to get the list and apply it, thereby filtering out people
who are attempting to upload known images to those
sites.

Unfortunately,
those behind the illegal images can still use the ‘darknet’ a
computer network with restricted access that is used chiefly for
illegal peer-to-peer file sharing to share images in a manner which
is much harder to trace than if they were published or shared on
the likes of Google.

Mr Durrant said
efforts are being made to tackle that phenomenon.

“The most
important tool for tackling abuse on the internet is that, if
people come across what they suspect is illegal content or is
leading to illegal content, report it to hotline.ie. It is totally
confidential,” he said.

“If we get
darknet reports, we will investigate that.

We try to find
the images in question.

Even though we
may not be able to locate where the images are from, as we can on
the normal net, we can still get those images and feed them into
the hashing system.

“The images can
be added to the Interpol database.

Also often,
because people think they are safe on the darknet, those images
themselves can contain information which has some clue in it which
can help law enforcement to possibly find out who these people
are.”

ANON
Aug 11th, 2015 @ 11:12 AM

Fireman John
McGinn raped young girl he rescued from blaze…

A firefighter
has been found guilty of raping a nine-year-old girl hours after he
rescued her from a blaze.

John McGinn,
56, saved the girl, whom he knew, from a fire at her house in
Bellshill, North Lanarkshire, in 1994.

The now-retired
firefighter later raped her and threatened to kill her mother if
she told anyone.

The girl, now
aged 30, later contacted police. An investigation of McGinn's past
led to him being convicted of six charges against the girl and
others.

McGinn was back
at the High Court in Glasgow for sentencing having been convicted
of the charges in June.

'Downright
lie'

The case,
however, was adjourned until later this month.

Earlier, the
court heard that McGinn denied raping the young girl after he was
arrested by police.

He told
detectives: "It's a downright lie it did not happen. No
chance.

For her to come
out with that is ridiculous. I would rather put a bullet in my own
head than be a paedophile."

He added:
"Hanging is too good for a paedophile."

McGinn, from
Bellshill, claimed the victim had previously tried to blackmail him
as she knew he had a lucrative fire brigade pension.

He claimed the
rape allegation was payback for not giving her money.

The jury heard,
however, that McGinn had assaulted another young girl and given her
sweets and juice to keep her quiet.

The court also
heard from a woman, aged 50, who had lived with McGinn in the
Bellshill area, in the 1980s.

She said she
had suffered years of sexual and physical violence from him and
described McGinn as "monster".

The woman told
the court that she was repeatedly raped by McGinn and had
eventually snapped and chased him with a knife after he tied her to
a bed and sexually assaulted her.

ANON
Aug 11th, 2015 @ 11:08 AM

1/2...Pakistan child sex
abuse: Seven arrested in Punjab…

Seven people
have been arrested in Pakistan on suspicion of involvement in child
sexual abuse and extortion.

The chief
minister of Punjab province, Shahbaz Sharif, ordered a judicial
inquiry into reports that hundreds of children had been abused over
a period of several years.

Local media say
a gang made videos showing the abuse of children, whose parents
were then subject to blackmail.

The scandal
centres on a village near the city of Kasur.

Reports say
about 280 children, mostly under 14-years-old, were abused and
filmed, in the village of Husain Khan Wala.

Correspondents
say many victims are afraid to report abuse, in a society which
allows abusers to brag about their exploits but stigmatises their
victims.Police say more
arrests are expected.

ANON
Aug 11th, 2015 @ 11:07 AM

2/2...Analysis by the BBC's
Ilyas Khan in Islamabad

Child sex abuse
is widespread in parts of Pakistan, especially in the
countryside.According to
one estimate, over 3,500 cases of child molestation were reported
in 2014, of which 67% were reported from rural areas.

Meanwhile, many
have noticed that most of the clips being investigated date back to
2009-11, shortly after camera phones first became widely available,
with few recent cases being reported.

This has led
some to suspect that the clips were reported to the police amid a
local dispute.

One boy told
BBC Urdu the abuse began when he was 11, five years
ago:

"They sexually
abused me in front of secret cameras, they came back a week later
and showed me the video, and said if I did not do what they wanted,
they would show it to my friends and school
colleagues."

A woman told
the BBC her son had been molested and blackmailed for five years,
and she had only recently learned about the abuse:

"They used to
badly treat him wherever they could get hold of him.

They would
snatch his mobile and money.

"They [the
perpetrators] are now threatening us."

District police
officer Rai Babar Saeed told BBC Urdu: "We have around 30 video
clips of one incident showing six victims and seven people
involved.

We have
arrested these seven. We are still trying to recover more
videos."

He added that
there was "no political motive" behind the investigations, which he
said were being conducted "on merit".

Last week, more
than 20 people were injured as families of the alleged victims
clashed with police in Kasur, accusing the authorities of ignoring
their complaints.

Saba Sadiq, the
head of Punjab's child protection bureau, described the case as
"the largest child abuse scandal in Pakistan's history", the AFP
news agency reports.

The provincial
chief in Punjab is the brother of Pakistan's Prime Minister Nawaz
Sharif.

ANON
Aug 9th, 2015 @ 12:02 PM

1/3...'Adoption hid family
breast cancer history from me'…

She was born in
Bessborough Mother and Baby home in Cork in 1969, to a single
mother, who named her Faith.

Simple facts,
but it took Kathy Finn (46) almost two decades of painstaking
searching to finally learn the most basic truths about her
birth.

Her courage and
determination to find answers eventually led Kathy to her birth
mother, extended family and the bitter truth of a strong family
history of breast cancer.

However, if the
Government's proposed adoption legislation had been in place when
Kathy began her search she would have never found this vital
information which, potentially, has life-changing
implications.

Kathy was
adopted by a Dublin couple when she was just three months
old.

She always knew
about her adoption.

"My adoptive
parents were very open and honest with me, there was never any
issue, it was a happy childhood and I always asked questions," said
Kathy, from Lucan, Co Dublin.

"If my mother
knew the answer, she would tell me but she knew nothing, just the
basic circumstances that surrounded my adoption to
them."

During her
teenage years, Kathy's longing for knowledge about her birth mother
and father intensified and when she turned 18 she decided to find
out more.

"My adoptive
mother always said to me: 'When you are ready I'll be right behind
you and we'll go together and find out.

' I thought I
could just walk into the agency and I would be told who my birth
mother was," she said.

But when Kathy
went to Cunamh the agency that handled her adoption asking them to
find her mother, she says she found them unhelpful.

"They told me
that my mother signed papers and that she got on with her life,"
said Kathy.

However, she
was informed that her mother had named her Faith.

ANON
Aug 9th, 2015 @ 11:58 AM

2/3...Over
the next few years, Kathy got married, had children of her own and
continued to follow up with Cunamh throughout the 1990s but made no
progress.

Then, with the
dawn of computers, Kathy linked up with online adoption groups and
people in similar situations and was encouraged to search for her
own birth certificate in the General Register Office (GRO) in
Dublin.

In 2000, Kathy
spent an entire day in the GRO, trawling through the records from
1969.

"I was shaking
because I thought I was doing something terribly wrong, but when I
finally turned the page and saw my name it was a wonderful feeling
I found some information at last," she said.

However, Kathy
soon realised that the limited details wouldn't bring her much
closer to finding her birth mother.

"People think
that by getting their birth certificate they will get lots of
information but adoption birth certs are different, it's not like
my kids' birth certs with names and addresses, these birth certs
give nothing," she said.

"It gave my
date of birth, my first name, my mother's full name and where I was
born - that's it. The information is so basic that it could belong
to anybody in the country," she said.

Kathy appealed
to the Adoption Board for help in 2002 and was left on a waiting
list for almost four years.

"When they
finally got back to me in 2006, I was told my mother had died in
1993 while I was looking for her," she said.

"If they had
done some searching in 1987 when I originally went into them I
could have known her, I could have gotten a couple of years or even
an hour to sit with her.

I wasn't asking
for a mother, I already had a mother, I just wanted to know where I
came from," she said.

ANON
Aug 9th, 2015 @ 11:55 AM

3/3...Kathy
didn't give up on her quest for information about her
identity.

She
subsequently met her biological father, half-brother, and several
of her aunts.

"Through them I
learnt that there is a history of breast cancer in my
family.

This is the
type of really important medical information that many adopted
people don't get.

I have three
daughters and they have a right to that information," she
said.

Last month, it
was revealed that tens of thousands of adopted people in Ireland
will have access to their birth certificates for the first time
under proposed legislation.

Under the
Adoption (Information and Tracing) Bill 2015, birth records will be
given to an adopted person, including those illegally adopted.
However, access will only be permitted with a parent's
consent.

Without
consent, records will only be released if an adopted person signs a
statutory declaration not to contact their birth parent and to
respect their privacy.

The new law
will only permit access to other identifying information in
adoption files ncluding family medical history with a parent's
consent.

Claire
McGettrick, CoFounder of the Adoption Rights Alliance said any
conditionality of equality for adopted people is "just
offensive".

"It's not a
statutory right to a relationship that we are after, it's a
statutory right to information.

If a natural
mother doesn't want to have contact with an adopted person the vast
majority would respect that," she told the Sunday
Independent.

"We were hoping
for unconditional access to our birth certificates and files just
like any other citizen," she said, adding that the majority of
their 1,300 members feel "let down" by the proposal.

For Kathy, the
proposed law continues to treat adopted people like second-class
citizens.

"I feel
Minister [James] Reilly is saying that our birth families need
protecting from us, like we're some sort of criminals," she
said.

"I wouldn't
have known anything about the history of breast cancer in my
family. My daughters have as much of a right to that information as
I do," she said.

ANON
Aug 7th, 2015 @ 06:58 PM

Evil'
paedophile Brian Tyrell given 24-year sentence…

A paedophile
who suggested "joining forces" with other abusers in online chat
rooms has been given a 24-year sentence.